I began my journey with Ceri not in windy Cardiff, where she was born, but in windy Cádiz, although somewhat sunnier, not to mention warmer, in the south west of Andalucia, Spain.

There she lives with her two kids, who are the centre of her universe at the moment. Proof of that is in the fact that whatever work Ceri takes on, it has to fit in around having fun with them.

This means that she currently writes more than she teaches, and she’s writing mostly materials for general English adult and teenage learners at the moment.

We duly left her two kids in good care, and stepped back in time to 1986, where we found ourselves in a city on a hillside. She showed me around the beautiful area of L’Aquila in Abruzzo where we walked through the maze of narrow streets until we ended up in an elegant piazza, where we stopped to have a cappuccino and a gelato.

Then, we journeyed on to Reading, where Dale, my previous interviewee, was born. When the winds broke our umbrellas, we decided to set off towards Madrid.

After a hot cortado, accompanied by a mantecado, we soaked in Goya & company, but when the flamenco got too mournful and it got too cold for my bones, I suggested moving on further south, and, by this time, Ceri was somewhat worried about her kids, so we found ourselves back in Cádiz again.

It was here where I left her, hugging and kissing her pride and joy, oblivious of my parting. Why don’t you join us in our short but enriching journey?

My last video interview (not counting the snippet of Scott Thornbury) was with Vicky Loras and was posted on 23rd October, a solid two months ago! These words may ring a bell to those of you old enough…

I was around when Jesus Christ

had his moment of doubt and pain

Well, it got to be a little like that… until people such as Brad Patterson and David Dodgson nominated iAskU for the Edublog Awards, and that gave me a much-needed boost of motivation. So, to sort of compensate for the lack of output this past couple of months, I’m offering a double bill! Two for the price of none becomes the square of two for the price of none!

First one up is someone with the devil-may-care attitude of youth, but blessed with the intelligence and wisdom of someone much further down the linear age line, or as Luke Meddings expostulated in the iTDi webinar recently, the not-so-linear age line. If you haven’t heard of Dale Coulter, it’s about time you had; and if you have, I’m sure you’d agree that he’s worth 26 minutes of our time, wouldn’t you?

Dale also mentioned a few people, and I’d also recommend checking them out:

My name is Dale Coulter and I’m an English teacher, born in Reading, near London in the UK and now residing in Rome. For the past two and a half years I’ve been teaching English in both London and Italy and not a day has passed that I haven’t woken up in the morning looking forward to going to work.

I am a keen fan of unplugged approaches to teaching and started using Dogme soon after qualifying. I find it’s the approach which accomodates my beliefs about teaching, that it’s a process of ‘pulling out’ information rather than ‘putting it in’. Lately I’ve found myself participating more in the online ELT world, writing my blog, keeping in touch and sharing ideas on twitter and also speaking at conferences around Europe.

I am constantly committed to pushing myself to the edge of my comfort zone, for it is only here that you really develop and improve.

I must admit that I was pleasantly surprised when some of you nominated this blog for the annual Edublog awards (Sandy Millin even nominated me for best personal tweeter – bless your heart, Sandy! – but unfortunately, I didn’t make it to the finals in that category). Edublogs have now published the shortlist for all the categories, and I’m terribly honoured, and excited, to see that iasku are included in two categories: Best new blog and Best use of media.

I feel truly exuberant when I browse through the list of finalists, and see so many “friends”, and some in more than one category: Brad Patterson, Scott Thornbury, Ceri Jones, Jason Renshaw, Dale Coulter, Mike Harrison, Ozge, Noor, Karenne, Nik, Eva, Barbara, Cecilia, Vicky, etc, etc.

There are also names I’m unfamiliar with, but will try to find time to check them out.

I was perhaps feeling a little down, and haven’t been that productive here lately, but being on these lists, among the best in education right now, serves as an added motivation, if I’m ever in need of it.

I’m sure everyone agrees that the mere fact of being named is already a prize, but a few votes won’t do any harm, will they? ;-) Voting is open until 11:59 pm US Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, 13th December.

Thanks once again for all your support, and a very big special thank you to all interviewees, past, present and future!

In recent weeks, news of iTDi have been flying on the internet waves, but who or what is iTDi? We asked its Academic Director, Scott Thornbury, to explain.

In a nutshell, iTDi is an online course, written by a truly international group of currently active teachers, for teachers who wish to continue their personal development in the education profession. Their first courses will be launched shortly, and it certainly looks like it’s going to be an exciting project.

Be sure not to miss the boat – follow them on Twitter, and join the group in Facebook by ‘liking’ it.

Whoop, whoop, whoop! I’ve finally managed to tear the Whooping, Yipping & Yaying Twitter Girl from her screens and her family, and to stay still for 15 minutes while I probed her brains and her heart. At the same time, without moving from our chairs, we travelled from Toronto to Ioannina, and onto Zug; we zipped in and out of seasons, we went up the mountains, and down to the lakes, but, still, we found some time to touch upon what’s near to our hearts: education.

Bio

My name is Vicky Loras and I am an English Teacher, born in Toronto, Canada. For ten years, my sisters (Eugenia and Christine) and I owned an English School in Greece, The Loras English Academy, but I have now moved with my eldest sister to Switzerland, where I continue to work as an English teacher. This year I teach mainly Business English to adults and I love it!

I believe in teaching as an ongoing learning process, both for the benefit of the students and the teacher. For that reason I love attending workshops and conferences! I feel so motivated and inspired by them.